Monthly Archives: January 2016

Every once in awhile, and it has been quite some time now, you find a book that touches every fiber of your being- your very soul. This book arrived at my door, signed by the author, and with a warning from Ann Patchett herself:

I’m sending this book out with a warning: whatever it is that needs doing, do it now. I’m talking about feeding your family, walking the dog, finishing a project for work. Don’t start reading My Name Is Lucy Barton before getting those things done. And don’t start it right before you plan to go to sleep either. You’ll be up half the night. This is one of those books that grabs you fast and hard, and by the time you’re ten pages in you’re not going to notice the world around you.

I heeded the warning. I made sure to phone my mother, meal prep, and lay out clothes for the week before driving to our local coffee shop to read the entire thing, in one sitting, without leaving my seat. Less than two hours after walking into the coffee shop, it was done. It’s that good!

The novel, which is so beautifully written I could cry, is about Lucy Barton whose mother visits her in the hospital after complications from a minor surgery. Lucy has a challenging relationship with her parents after growing up in a poverty stricken, neglectful household in the cornfields of Illinois and had not seen her mother in many years. She describes her childhood by saying,

Lonely was the first flavor I had tasted in my life, and it was always there, hidden inside the crevices of my mouth, reminding me.

The stories they share over several days and the conversations they have, and do not have, are powerful and speak to the very essence of what it means to be human.

This is a story about a mother loving her daughter. Imperfectly. Because we all love imperfectly.

I wanted to write all over this book, underline phrases, write my story in the margins, scribble all over and yet refrained; it is a signed first edition after all. I simply can’t even tell you more about this, but please get a copy of My Name is Lucy Barton and tell me what you think!

Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is the incredible story of life in Nigeria during the Biafran War! The story is told through three main narrators: Olanna, Richard, and Ugwu. Olanna is a wealthy Igbo living with her boyfriend Odenigbo, an intellectual, who feels “Education is a priority! How can we resist exploitation if we don’t have the tools to understand exploitation?” He is very political and throws parties in which people from the university come to discuss literature and current events. Odenigbo is by far my favorite character! He has a houseboy Ugwu who is from a poor, rural village and is also one of the narrators. The minute that Ugwu moved in, Odenigbo was questioning him about his education and required him to start school immediately. He is stuck between two worlds really, as he left all his family behind in their village living in poverty. Finally, there is Richard who is in a relationship with Olanna’s twin sister. He is an English writer. The lives of these people are intertwined and the characters are very well developed. No one is flat. I deeply cared about all of them, some more than others. Everyone is very human and the way Chimamanda developed all the characters, switched perspectives constantly, and switched time periods constantly is incredible. Like I said this book was very well done!

Not only are the characters incredibly strong in this novel, but I learned a bit about the Biafran War/Nigerian Civil War (1967-1970) and how quickly lives can change. As this book was historical fiction, you learn about the war through the eyes of the characters and it’s sometimes confusing to understand the whole situation when you are in the middle of it. I read a bit on the war after finishing this book, saw which side the US supported (even though they claimed to be neutral), and realized, even more than before, how horrible war is. There are good people on either side of a conflict and they get hurt, badly. The portions of this book describing war are horrible to read about and yet incredibly powerful.

This book fulfills the “book about a culture you’re unfamiliar with” category for the 2016 Reading Challenge! I have LOTS more planned for this category though, especially or Black History Month so be prepared for some reads not fulfilling categories in this challenge. On another note, join me in this read along I’m doing! #ReadSoulLit

What would happen if you created maps that tracked the plots of classic books? This is exactly what Andrew DeGraff and Daniel Harmon did. Daniel Harmon wrote an introduction essay for each book and Andrew DeGraff made incredible maps tracking the characters and their movements throughout the story. The book starts off with Odyssey by Homer (800 BCE) and ends with The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula K. Le Guin (1973). Some of my all time favorites were in there too: (Odyssey by Homer, “Hamlet” by Shakespeare, “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle. Actually, let’s put it this way, I either LOVED the books picked (see above) or had never read them. I guess I have some work to do! Four months till summer reading season although let’s be honest, winter is just as cozy and wonderful to read during also!

I liked this book mainly because of the creative idea behind it. Who would have thought to make a bunch of maps like this? The time it must have taken and the creativity are simply remarkable! The final product was simply okay.

This book fulfills the “graphic novel” category of the 2016 Reading Challenge although if we are being serious, this is more of a infographic/atlas/essay book but there is not a category for genre benders like that!

Do you enjoy the podcast “Serial” or the Netflix show “Making a Murderer”? The Other Side of the River is a true crime book about the murder of a teenager from Benton Harbor, MI in the early 90’s. This book dealt with racism and issues that are in the news today despite this story taking place in 1991 and being published in 1998. Clearly, we have a problem here people!

For those non-Michiganders out there, Benton Harbor and St. Joe are neighboring towns on the shore of Lake Michigan. St. Joe is white, Benton Harbor is black. St. Joe is rich, Benton Harbor is poor. Get the picture? Eric Meginnis was a black teenager murdered in St. Joe and the book discusses the investigation.

The Other Side of the River would really do well as a one book, one community type of book because 1) there is too much going on just to write about on this little blog and 2) people need to talk. For real. Without fear. Easier said than done, I know.

The main thought that struck me throughout this book was how segregated we still are. In this book people are segregated by city. Where I live now is also segregated in this way. In the past, I’ve lived places segregated by neighborhood but the fact remains that even if the city itself is diverse, it seems people still live near those like themselves. I don’t like this, yet here I sit typing in a town in which I’m not sure I have ever noticed a person of color. In fact my moving truck drivers, who were black, got pulled over as soon as they pulled into town!

I have moved ten different times in the almost 12 years since I graduated high school. Each time I move one of the top priorities is to be somewhere safe- which by coincidence ends up being in primarily “white” areas. I have that privilege, however tight my budget, to be able to choose a place that is safe by looking at crime maps and choosing apartments in safe parts of town. Not everyone has that option to live in a safe place that also welcomes them and because many African American are economically disadvantaged, they are often forced to live in areas that are unsafe with lower quality schools (Extremely high quality teachers- some of the best, but lower quality for other reasons that could be a blog post by itself) which perpetuates this cycle. Some white people, like myself, would love to make a change and move into a community with more diversity however high crime and poor schools for current or future children keeps us away. Higher rent and racism likely keep blacks from moving to predominately white areas. If we continue to live apart, how can we ever fix this racism thing? This issue is something that bothered me throughout the entire book and I am well aware it is only one tiny, microscopic piece of this hot mess we have created in our country. I’m not sure what part I can play in fixing things, but I’m willing to listen and learn. A wise friend (name drop- Colleen Deal) recently said,

Can’t we all just admit that maybe we don’t know what it feels like to be someone else and that it’s possible someone else’s feelings are justified, whether we agree with them or not?

Something to think about… and if you need one more visual, watch this video of the Red Line in Chicago running from Skokie to the south side. For reference, I used to live near the Sheridan station.

Quality of life is a term that deeply disturbs me. I have witnessed people make decisions that have resulted in the death of another all because of judgments regarding the individual’s “quality of life”. I have been changed by experiencing a situation in which a typically happy child, who could have been described by many using the term “vegetable”, began to cry when hurtful information about a family member was shared in his presence. It is for these reasons that I am last on the official, notarized list in our family regarding who can make medical decisions for my parents one day. In essence, it is up to my brother to “pull the plug”, a decision which will be equally hard for him to make one day.

Despite all my opinions going into this read, I still consider myself changed after reading this book. “One of Us” by Alice Domurat Dreger focuses primarily on conjoined twins and on what is “normal”. Dreger asks the question: who are we to determine normal? Who are we, as individuals with typical anatomy, to determine quality of life? Alice describes her own work by stating, “The question that motivates many of my projects is this: Why not change minds instead of bodies? ” Countless stories of conjoined twins are shared as well as details on surgeries and many statistics. She describes many adult conjoined twins who have no interest in being separated- this is their normal.

There are many other groups with abnormal anatomy mentioned, but conjoined twins are the primary focus of the book. I really enjoyed this book because it pushed me to view things from a different angle.

I love to read and I love to read about reading! Reading about reading results in me requesting 5,000 library books and then having them all arrive on the same day! I had no idea how this book even ended up in my stack of library books except that I must have read about it on some list and requested it. I didn’t find out where I heard about it from until I went to enter it on Goodreads only to find it won the Goodreads Choice in 2015. Congrats, Connor Franta!

It turns out Connor Franta is a YouTuber who wrote a book about growing up and becoming the man he is today. The book is good, filled with photographs and done in a very artsy way, but it isn’t until the end that the book becomes great! Connor talks about coming out at gay to his parents. He talks about people wanting to put labels on him just being who he is, living his life; the whole book is filled with a lot of wisdom that is incredible coming from a 22 year old. “Love knows no gender, race, shape, or size. Love is love- an energy that fuses souls.” This is a great read for young people everywhere struggling to be happy with the person they are. It’s not a book about being gay, it’s a book about being human.

I am not even sure how many times I have read this book, but a friend giving me a dozen eggs from her free range chickens inspired me to read it yet again! Basically this book tells the tale of the well known author, Barbara Kingsolver, packing up her family and moving to a farm on the other side of the country. It’s a year of her just living her life eating locally grown/raised food. She begins the journey with harvesting my favorite vegetable in the entire world, asparagus, and carries on through the summer, fall, and winter that follow! I don’t care if you aren’t a foodie, everything Barbara Kingsolver writes is beautiful. She could write about horrible things and I would still love her! So for that reason, you should read this- foodie or not.

I love this book even more now that I live in the country and have easy access to free range eggs and beef raised by a farmer who sings to his cows- no joke! Slowly but surely I’ll make changes to my lifestyle that benefit my health and those around me 🙂 Below are my friend’s chickens and the eggs I received today! They had giant, super bright yokes and were AMAZING!!!

Draw yourself a bubble bath, pour yourself a glass of wine, and soak it up with Penguins with People Problems by Mary Laura Philpott! This book is super short and very entertaining. Mary Laura heard of the merger between Random House and Penguin and started doodling “Random Penguins” all over on Tumblr. This book is filled with crazy illustrations of penguins acting like people you might know- or maybe even yourself. My favorite page was of a penguin taking care of herself after a breakup by being super healthy. She was eating organic Greek yogurt with “Oreos, Gummi nakes, coconut, M&M’s, and caramel sauce”… I would NEVER do such a thing *cough*.

Happy New Year! Welcome to 2016 and the start of a brand new year ready to be filled with family, friends, and books (lots of books)! My cousins and I are participating in Popsugar’s 2016 Reading Challenge and I started the year off right by staying in my pjs to read “A book under 150 pages”.

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad makes the cut at 110 pages. This book was selected because I want to complete the challenge by reading books from the very large collection of books I own, but have never read, and I also wanted to start some momentum with a smaller book. I picked up this book a few years ago when it was mentioned in an interview with Ann Patchett that many people were reminded of this novel when reading State of Wonder (one of my favorite books of all time). ***I own a signed copy of this book!***

The similarities are quite clear, both stories involve characters setting off on a mission by boat through a jungle trying to find someone who is very difficult to find and conflict ensues (thus making a story). I enjoyed this novel simply because of how similar it was to Ann’s book. I also enjoyed this story because although it’s a novel, the author had very similar experiences while working for a Belgian trading company for three years. One can judge the narrator, or author for that matter, to be racist and they would have a great deal of evidence to support that conclusion. In fact, I would not disagree; the way the Africans in the book were described was quite difficult to read at times. That said, I enjoyed reading because it offers me a viewpoint into ideas different than my own and a glimpse back into the era of colonization. Joseph Conrad wrote what he knew and that’s reflected in this book. It would be interesting to read from his contemporaries that had different viewpoints for example, Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa by David Livingstone.

Happy New Year and happy reading!!!

Welcome!

Hi, my name is Karen Evans and I write about reading! I started The Book Nook in 2012 when I discovered a large community of readers online and wanted to join the conversation. I'm a Michigander who somehow landed the best job of my life teaching 4th grade special education in Illinois! I write in the early mornings before school and read at night! My favorite authors include Ann Patchett, Marilynne Robinson, Elizabeth Strout, and Donna Tartt. This is a place for me to share my passion for reading with others. If you're interested in having me review your book, please contact me at k4evans1@gmail.com